Hindi
Kamal Haasan to open Indian Pavilion at 67th Cannes Film Festival
NEW DELHI: Versatile actor Kamal Haasan will inaugurate the Indian pavilion – 112 Village International Riviera with a terrace overlooking the Meditarranean Sea – at the 67th Cannes Film Festival commencing on 14 May.
Being set up by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in coordination with the Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B), it will be inaugurated by Haasan who is chairman of the FICCI Media and Entertainment Business Conclave on 15 May in the presence of Indian Ambassador to France Arun K Singh, I&B secretary Bimal Julka, and Marche du Film (the Cannes Film Market) director Jerome Paillard.
The inaugural addresses will be followed by a discussion on ‘The Making of Grace of Monaco’, the inaugural film of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. The interactive session anchored by veteran journalist Patrick Frater who is Asia Bureau Chief of Variety, will witness a discussion amongst key personnel from YRF Entertainment led by its head Uday Chopra – the Hollywood arm of the Bollywood powerhouse Yash Raj Films, and one of the producers of ‘The Grace of Monaco’, and the writer of the film; Development and Production at YRF Entertainment head and executive producer Jonathan Reiman and British-Iranian writer Arash Amel.
The afternoon will see a discussion and felicitation of ‘Titli’, India’s official selection at the festival (Un Certain Regard section) along with the cast and crew including director Kanu Behl. The other Indian film selected at the Festival is Gitanjali Rao’s 19-minute animated romance ‘True Love Story’ which is the only Asian film in the Critics’ Week of the Festival. Titled ‘The Journey to Cannes’, this session will feature ‘Titli’ director Kanu Behl, YRF VP international operations Avtar Panesar, Sikhya Entertainment founder Guneet Monga, Anurag Kashyap and actor Ranvir Shorey.
The India Pavilion will showcase 100 years of Indian cinema across linguistic, cultural and regional diversity with the aim of forging an increasing number of international partnerships in the realms of distribution, production, filming in India, script development and technology and promoting film sales and syndication.
In particular, the area of focus at this year’s Cannes Film Festival is establishing India as a global film shooting destination and highlighting initiatives such as Single Window Clearance and co-production agreements with various countries that will enable this.
The Ministry has ensured that the space available for Indian delegates is probably the biggest in the Cannes village (126 sq metres). To ensure optimum utilization of this coveted space, the Ministry and FICCI have worked to make a schedule of pre-structured B2B meetings for delegates.
For the first time, the Ministry is releasing the “India Film Guide for Cannes” at the inaugural ceremony with exhaustive descriptions of the policy initiatives of the Ministry, its affiliated bodies; details of all India’s co-production agreements; all Indian films at Cannes and all visiting India delegates; key databases pertaining to the sector and the winners of this year’s national awards.
FICCI, in association with the Ministry will be organising interactive sessions with Indian and international film industry stakeholders at the India Pavilion.
Speakers at these sessions will include New Zealand Film Commission CEO Dave Gibson; Telefilm Canada CEO Carolle Brabant; Toronto Film Festival’s Artistic director Cameron Bailey; Rotterdam International Film Festival’s Cinemart manager Marit van den Elshout; Lighthouse Productions, China, CEO Cindy Shyu; John Penotti of Ivanhoe Productions in the United States; Special Treats Productions CEO Colin Burrows and crew members from Grace of Monaco.
The India Pavilion will be showcasing trailers of recent Indian films and displaying brochures and other literature of Indian film companies. FICCI will be facilitating structured B2B meetings between Indian and international delegates at the festival, and coordinating for exclusive networking events. Alongside, the ‘India Film Guide’, which will list all film related initiatives undertaken by the Government of India and information about all Indian films and delegates at Cannes this year, will be distributed to key international stakeholders.
India will be represented at Cannes by Julka as well as industry stakeholders such as Uday Chopra, Dibakar Banerjee, Bobby Bedi, Ravi Kottarakara and Supran Sen, president and secretary general respectively of the Film Federation of India; Film & Television Producers Guild of India CEO Kulmeet Makkar, and actors Mallika Sherawat and Ranvir Shorey among others.
The India Pavilion will see the presence of Indian filmmakers whose films have been selected at Cannes this year – filmmakers Kanu Behl and Gitanjali Rao and other industry veterans and stars.
“We are honoured and privileged to be working with and on behalf of the Ministry at the prestigious Festival,” FICCI secretary general Dr A. Didar Singh. “It is the next step in FICCI’s continual efforts to bring Indian entertainment to the global forefront.”
Hindi
GUEST COLUMN: Why film libraries & IPs are the new engines of growth
Unlocking value through catalogue strength and IP synergy
MUMBAI:In a media landscape defined by fragmentation, platform proliferation, and ever-evolving audience behavior, the economics of filmmaking are undergoing a fundamental shift. No longer confined to box office performance, a film’s true value is now measured across an extended lifecycle that spans digital platforms, syndication networks, and global markets. As content consumption becomes increasingly non-linear and algorithm-driven, film libraries and intellectual properties (IPs) are emerging as strategic assets, capable of delivering sustained, long-term returns. For Mohan Gopinath, head – bollywood business at Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd., this transformation signals a decisive move from hit-driven models to portfolio-led value creation. In this piece, Gopinath explores how legacy content, when intelligently repurposed and distributed, can unlock recurring revenue streams, why the interplay between catalogue and original IP is critical, and how media companies can build resilient, future-ready entertainment businesses.
For all these years, we thought that a film is successful if it performs well in theatres. There are opening weekend numbers, box office milestones, and distribution footprints that gave a good picture of how the movie has done commercially and also tell us about its cultural impact. However, there are multiple platforms today, always-on content ecosystem, which has caused a shift. Today, the theatrical performance is not the culmination of a film’s journey but merely the beginning of a much longer and more dynamic lifecycle.
Film libraries today are emerging as high-value, constantly evolving assets that deliver sustained returns well beyond initial release cycles. This becomes a point of great advantage for legacy content owners with diverse catalogues, to shape long-term business outcomes.
According to FICCI-EY, the media and entertainment industry of India achieved a valuation of Rs 2.78 trillion in 2025 which is expected to reach Rs 3.3 trillion by 2028 through a compound annual growth rate of approximately 7 per cent and digital media will bring in more than Rs 1 trillion to become the biggest sector which generates about 36 per cent of overall market revenues.
This shift is the expansion of distribution endpoints. We know how satellite television was once the primary secondary window but today, it coexists with YouTube, OTT platforms, Connected TV, and FAST channels. Each of these platforms caters to distinct audience demographics and consumption behaviors, helping content owners to obtain more value from the same asset across multiple formats.
For instance, films that had great reruns, now find continuous engagement across digital platforms. On YouTube, classic Hindi cinema continues to attract significant viewership, reaching audiences across generations and geographies with remarkable consistency. At Shemaroo Entertainment, this is reflected in our film library shaped over decades as part of a long association with Indian entertainment. From classics such as Amar Akbar Anthony to much-loved entertainers like Jab We Met, Welcome, Dhamaal, Phir Hera Pheri, Dhol, Golmaal, and Bhagam Bhag, many of these titles continue finding new audiences while retaining their place in popular memory. Their enduring appeal reflects how culturally resonant stories can continue creating value over time. Similarly, FAST channels have created curated, always-on environments where catalogue content can continue to thrive through star-led and genre-based programming.
This multi-platform approach has very well transformed films into long-tail IP assets which are capable of generating recurring revenue across advertising, subscription, and syndication models.
The evolution of audience behavior is equally important. Nowadays, it’s more important to find what’s more relative than what’s recent as viewers are more influenced by mood, memories, and algorithmic suggestions than by release schedules. Even if a movie was released decades ago, it can trend alongside a newly released movie, if surfaced in the right context. Thoughtful packaging, whether through festival-based playlists, actor-driven collections, or genre clusters, allows catalogue content to remain dynamic and continuously discoverable. Shemaroo Entertainment has built extensive film libraries over decades and its focus has mostly been on recontextualizing content for the consumption of newer environments. This process doesn’t just include digitization and restoration, but also re-packaging of films as per platforms.
Syndication itself has evolved into a key growth driver. In perspective, when looking at the domestic market, curated content packages continue to find strong demand across broadcast and digital platforms. Meanwhile, in the international market, especially in markets like Middle East, North America and Southeast Asia, the appetite for Indian content is opening up new monetization avenues. Here, the ability to package and position catalogue content effectively becomes as important as the content itself.
Importantly, the need to re-package catalogue content does not diminish the role of new content. In fact, originals and fresh IP are essential to sustaining the long-term value of a film library because they act as discovery engines that bring audiences into the ecosystem, while catalogue content drives depth, retention, and repeat engagement.
This interplay between the “new” and the “known” is what defines a robust content strategy today. While new films generate spikes in consumption, catalogue titles offer familiarity and comfort. These are factors that are increasingly valuable in an era of content abundance and decision fatigue. This is also shaping our strategy, drawing value from both a deep catalogue assets and a growing focus on original IPs to strengthen long-term audience engagement and build more predictable revenue streams.
There is growing recognition that long-term value in entertainment will be shaped not only by how intelligently existing content continues to live, travel and find relevance, but also by how consistently new stories are created to renew that ecosystem. In that sense, film libraries and original IP are not parallel bets, but reinforcing engines of growth. For media companies, the opportunity lies in making these two forces work together, because that is increasingly where more resilient and predictable businesses are being shaped.
Note: The views expressed in this article are solely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect our own.
